


Avengers Assemble!

by transitioning_laufeyson



Series: Two Men and Crippling Idiocy [2]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-17
Updated: 2019-09-17
Packaged: 2020-11-02 08:03:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,970
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20677457
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/transitioning_laufeyson/pseuds/transitioning_laufeyson





	Avengers Assemble!

Justin had been out of the hospital for nearly two months when the Director called. He had told them about Erik Selvig and the Tesseract, and that their assistance was non-negotiable.

“But what about Yulia?” Justin had asked. “She’s two months old!”

“It’s been taken care of,” was all the Director said before he hung up.

Justin looked into the kitchen where Ivan was feeding their daughter. “Asshole.”

~~~~~~~~~~

“Talk to me, Doctors,” Fury said, walking in.

Justin and Ivan turned around and watched Selvig go over to him.

“The Tesseract is misbehaving,” Selvig said. Justin snorted, and turned back to his calculations.

“That supposed to be funny?” Fury asked.

“It’s anything but funny,” Ivan said, folding his arms. “The Tesseract is active, and we don’t like the activity.”

“Why don’t you pull the plug?” Fury asked.

“The Tesseract is the energy source,” Selvig said. “We turn the power off, she turns it back on. If she reaches peak level-“

“We’ve prepared for this, Doctor,” Fury said. “Harnessing energy from space.”

“We don’t currently have a harness,” Justin said, walking over. “We’re still working on the calculations.” He held up his notepad, full of complicated equations.

Ivan continued. “She’s throwing off interference, low levels of radiation, nothing too harmful, just a bit of gamma waves.”

Fury turned from where he was looking at the cube. “That can be harmful. Where’s Barton?”

“In his nest,” Justin said, taking out his pencil and returning to work.

They continued to work as Barton and Fury talked.

One of the scientists began inputting numbers. Justin suddenly looked up. “Wait, no, I got it wrong, it’s not-“

A dangerous rumble erupted from the Tesseract. Ivan held Justin by the waist, who clapped a hand on his shoulder for support.

The Tesseract created a portal, which seemed to get more unstable by the second. Then a figure emerged.

“Oh my God,” Justin whispered. Selvig had told him a few stories about his experience in New Mexico, and he recognised this man as Loki, the infamous trickster. He slowly inched his hand towards his gun, which sat on his hip.

“Sir, please put down the spear,” Fury said. Justin quietly flicked the safety off the gun and crouched behind the table, where Ivan was already hiding.

“I’ll leave this up to you,” Ivan said.

Loki seemed to deflect every shot that came his way. Justin got thrown by a blue bolt when Loki turned his attention to him. He landed a few feet away, where Ivan grabbed a hold of him and helped him up.

Fury had grabbed the Tesseract when Loki spoke for the first time.

“Please don’t,” He said. “I still need that.”

“This doesn’t have to get any messier,” Fury said.

“Of cours it does,” Loki replied. Ivan supported Justin while he lifted himself onto one of the tables. He sat, watching and subtly recording for future notice. “I’ve come too far for anything else.”

Fury turned back to him.

“I am Loki, of Asgard, and I am burdened with glorious purpose.” Ivan gave Justin a look, as if to say ‘can you believe this prick?’

“We have no quarrel with your people,” Fury said, raising a hand.

“An ant has no quarrel with a boot,” Loki replied.

“Oh, are you planning on stepping on us?” Fury asked.

“I come with glad tidings,” Loki said, pacing slightly before returning his gaze to Fury, “of a world made free.” Ivan reached for Justin’s hand. He took it, smiling grimly at him.

“Free from what?” Fury asked.

“Freedom. Freedom is life’s great lie. Once you accept that, in your heart,” Loki paused to direct his spear at Selvig, who had moved. Justin held an arm in front of Ivan to stop him intervening. “You will know peace.”

“Doesn’t sound much like peace,” Fury said. “Sounds a lot like another thing.”

“Sir, Director Fury is stalling,” Barton said, making his way to Loki. “This place is about to blow and drop a hundred feet of rock on us.”

“Like the pharaohs of old,” Fury said, looking at Justin and Ivan, who now looked alarmed. ‘Don’t worry’ he mouthed to them.

“He’s right,” Selvig said. “The portal is collapsing in on itself. Got maybe two minutes before this goes critical.”

Ivan grabbed his jacket and threw Justin his own, who caught it quietly.

Loki fired a bolt at Fury, before turning to the other two. “Don’t make me hurt you,” He said, before he and his entourage left, along with the Tesseract.

Ivan immediately ran to Fury and helped him up while Justin ran to grab their bags. The three of them sprinted out of the lab and into the helicopter that was waiting. Justin and Ivan held hands tightly as the base exploded below them.

Suddenly, Justin looked to Fury, panic in his eyes. “Yulia. Where is she?”

“She was evacuated earlier,” Fury promised.

The ride in the helicopter was short lived as Loki hit the helicopter, and they had to jump out before the helicopter exploded.

“Son of a bitch,” Justin said as he lay on ground. Fury was still yelling into the walkie-talkie.

~~~~~~~~~~

“Your daughter will be in a safe location for as long as this situation endures,” Fury said as they walked onto the bridge. Out of the window, they could see the suits flying in. They had most likely landed on the runway. “Don’t worry,” he continued when it seemed they wanted to protest. “You can contact her now if you wish, but I’ve been told that she’s currently asleep. Why don’t you two take a seat?”

They say next to each other, still holding hands.

“I don’t like this,” Ivan said.

“Well, an intergalactic being with an almost all powerful stone wishes to take away our freedom and life as we know it, so yeah, I’m not fucking surprised,” Justin said, rubbing at his face. Ivan dropped Justin’s hand and put his head in his own hands. “Hey. It’s gonna work out fine, and we’re gonna go back home to Chicago with our daughter and we aren’t going to die.”

Ivan’s phone buzzed and he picked it up. “Stark tower is online.”

“Oh! Good for Tony!”

~~~~~~~~~~

Hammer and Vanko’s files were extensive and complicated. Both of them should have been in prison.

“Hey. Coulson,” Steve said.

“Yes?” Phil said, turning around.

“What does transgender mean?” He asked.

Phil pulled a face before replying. “When someone’s gender is different from what they were assigned at birth. Why?”

“It’s in Hammer’s file,” Steve said.

“Oh, don’t worry about it,” Phil said. “It won’t change anything. Just ignore it.”

~~~~~~~~~~

“Agent Romanoff, Dr Vanko, Dr Hammer,” Phil said. “This is Captain Rogers.”

“Hi,” Natasha said to Rogers. Then she turned her attention to Phil. “They need you on the bridge, they’re starting the face trace.”

“It was quite the buzz around here, finding you in the ice,” Natasha said, starting to walk. “Thought Coulson was gonna swoon. Has he shown you his Captain America trading cards yet?”

“Trading cards?”

“I had a few of them when I was younger,” Justin said. Rogers turned to him.

“Seriously?”

“Yeah, they were a big thing in middle school. There were a lot of comics as well,” Justin said, extending a hand. “Justin Hammer. Nice to meet you.”

“Ah, so you’re the transgender one,” Rogers said, shaking his hand.

Ivan froze beside Justin. “I’m sorry, what?” Justin asked, starting to panic slightly.

“It’s in your file,” Natasha said.

“Oh,” Justin said sarcastically. “Brilliant. Just fucking great.”

“Dr Banner,” Natasha said, pointedly turning her attention to another man who was walking over.

“Oh, hi,” Banner said, shaking the hand that Rogers offered. “They told me you guys were coming.” He nodded at Justin and Ivan. “It’s nice to see you two again.”

“Word is you can find the cube,” Rogers said.

“Is that the only word on me?” Bruce asked.

“Only word we care about,” Rogers said.

Bruce looked around. “Must be a bit strange for you.”

“Actually,” Rogers said, looking at the men running past. “This is kind of familiar.”

Natasha walked back over. “Gentlemen, You might want to step inside in a minute. It’s gonna get a little hard to breathe.”

An alarm sounded, and men began to secure the planes.

“Is this a submarine?” Rogers asked.

“Really? They want me in a submerged, pressurised container?” Banner asked sarcastically.

“Not likely,” Justin said. “An aircraft carrier? More likely to go up than go down.”

All four of they stepped towards the edge, where you could see the turbines that were lifting them up in the air.

“Holy shit, I was joking,” Justin laughed, laying his hand over Ivan’s, which was now on his waist.

~~~~~~~~~~

“Loki’s in Stuttgart,” Coulson said, walking into the lab where Justin, Bruce and Ivan were working in silence. Justin pulled off his headphones to listen. “We’ll update you when we get more information. For now, just continue.”

Half an hour later, Coulson returned. “Stark just showed up.” Ivan gave a rueful chuckle and Justin smiled.

~~~~~~~~~~

“A monster, pretending to be a man.”

Justin looked up from where his head was resting on Ivan’s shoulder, to look at Banner. He seemed normal, no problems, no sliver of green that they had been warned about by the director.

The new member, Thor, was one he had heard about quite a bit from Dr Selvig. He was silent, so far, brooding, in a way.

Justin turned his attention back to Loki.

“And for what? A warm light for all mankind to share? And then to be reminded what real power is,” Loki monologues.

“He really grows on you, doesn’t he?” Banner said jokingly.

“Loki’s gonna drag this out,” Rogers said, now dressed in that ridiculous garish suit of his. “So, Thor, what’s his play?”

“He has an army, called the Chitauri. They are not of Asgard, nor any world known. He means to lead them against your people. They will win him the Earth, and return, I suspect, for the Tesseract.”

Rogers suddenly looked mildly disturbed. “An army. From outer space.”

“They are going to come through a portal, which is what they need Dr Selvig for,” Ivan said.

“Selvig?” Thor said.

“He’s an astrophysicist,” Bruce said.

“He’s a friend,” Thor replied.

“Loki has him,” Natasha said. “Along with one of ours.”

“I wanna know why Loki let us take him,” Steve said.

“I don’t think that we should be focusing on Loki, that guy’s a bag full of cats, you can smell crazy on him,” Banner said, giving a wry smile.

“Have care how you speak,” Thor said. “Loki is beyond reason but he is from Asgard. And he is my brother.”

“He’s killed 80 people in two days,” Justin said. “And he almost killed us.”

“He’s adopted,” Thor said as an excuse.

“I think it’s about the mechanics,” Bruce said. “Iridium. What does he need iridium for?”

“It’s a stabilising agent,” both Ivan and Tony said at the same time. Justin and Ivan turned around to watch his entrance. Tony continued. “Means, the portal won’t collapse on itself like it did at SHIELD.” He looked at the couple. “Nice to see you two. Hope the kid’s well.”

“It also means that the portal can stay open as wide and as long as Loki wants it to,” Justin said, turning back to the table.

“Brilliant, Justin,” Tony said. “The rest of the raw materials, Barton can get his hands on pretty easily. Only thing he needs now is a power source.” Justin noted that Tony bugged the system. Nobody else noticed, except maybe Ivan. “Something to kickstart the thing.”

“When did you become an expert in thermonuclear astrophysics?” Hill asked.

“Last night,” Tony said. Justin snorted at that. “Selvig’s notes. Was I the only one that did the reading?”

“Does Loki need anything specific as a power source?” Rogers asked.

“He’s have to heat the cube to 120 million Kelvin to break through the Coulomb barrier,” Bruce said.

Rogers looked lost, so Justin clarified. “It needs to be really hot.”

“Unless Selvig has figured out how to stabilise the quantum tunnelling,” Ivan interjected.

“Well, if he could do that, then he could achieve heavy ion fusion at any reactor on the planet,” Bruce said.

“You four are here to track the cube,” Fury said. “That’s all Dr Banner is here for.”

“Aww, killjoy,” Tony said.

~~~~~~~~~~

“Y’know, You should come by Stark Tower sometime,” Tony said, walking around the lab. “That applies to you two as well,” he said, turning to Ivan and Justin. Justin had taken his seat in Ivan’s lap. “Top ten floors, all R&D, you guys’d love it, it’s candy land.”

“Yeah, well, last time I was in New York, I kinda broke... Harlem,” Bruce said.

“I promise a stress free environment,” Tony said, walking by him. “No surprises.” He then shocked Bruce.

“Ow!” He said, turning around.

“Tony!” Justin yelled. “Jesus Christ!”

“Are you nuts?” Rogers said, walking in.

Ivan and Justin tuned out the conversation again, only focusing on their work and each other.

“The tower is powered by an arc reactor,” Tony said. “Courtesy of Dr Vanko senior,” he gestured to Ivan.

“My father was a bastard,” Ivan said, continuing to work. “I’m glad he’s dead.”

“How long will it run for?” Bruce said. “A year? Two?”

“It is a prototype,” Tony said. “Hey, Justin, I know you noticed. Wanna find out what my bug was for?”

“Yes,” Justin said.

“What? He bugged the ship?” Ivan asked.

“Yeah, almost as soon as he got on the bridge,” Justin said. “Hacking SHIELD’s files?”

“Of course,” Tony said, offering him a snack.

~~~~~~~~~~

Justin chose to keep working on the Tesseract while the others tried the virus.

“Mr Stark, what are you doing?” Fury said.

“I would like to ask you the same question,” Tony said.

“You’re supposed to be locating the Tesseract,” Fury said, clearly enraged.

“We have,” Bruce said. “The model’s locked and we’re searching for the signature now. We’ll have a location within half a mile.”

“Don’t worry Director,” Ivan said. “You’ll get your cube back.”

“No muss, no fuss,” Tony said, just as the hacking was complete. “What is Phase 2?”

A slamming sound drew all eyes to Rogers. “Phase 2 is they use the Tesseract to make weapons.”

“Rogers, we gathered everything related to the Tesseract. This does not mean that-“

“Oh I’m sorry, Nick, what were you saying?” Tony said bringing the screen round so they all could see it. “Oh, would you look at that, on the list of designers: Justin Hammer.” Ivan looked at him, betrayed. He looked at the floor, the counter, anywhere but his husband.

“I was wrong about you. The world hasn’t changed a bit,” Rogers said, just as Thor and Natasha walked in.

“You knew about this?” Bruce asked Natasha.

“You want to think about removing yourself from this environment, Doctor?” Natasha said.

“Oh, I was in Calcutta, I was pretty well removed,” Bruce said.

“Loki’s manipulating you,” Natasha said.

“And you’re doing what exactly?”

“You didn’t come here because I bat my eyelashes at you.”

“And I’m not leaving because I got twitchy,” Bruce said. “I want to know why SHIELD is using the Tesseract to build weapons of mass destruction?”

“It’s for him,” Fury said, pointing to Thor. “And for them.” He pointed to Justin and Ivan.

“Last year, we had a visitor from another planet,” Fury said. “Who had a grudge match that levelled a small town. One year before that, there was another grudge match that killed fifteen people and injured dozens more.”

Justin covered his mouth with his hands. He never checked the kill count. He sat down heavily and rested his head in his hands, turning out the argument, trying not to break down. Ivan placed a hand over his own face. They were lost in their own distraught, ignoring the rest of the argument.

“Why shouldn’t the guy let off a little steam?”

“You know damn well why, back off!”

“Oh, I’m starting to want you to make me.”

“Big man in a suit of armour,” Steve said threateningly. “Take That off, what are you?”

“Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist,” Tony said.

He had a point.

“I’ve seen guys with none of that worth ten of you,” Rogers said. “And I’ve seen the footage. The only person you really fight for is yourself.”

“Then you’re watching the wrong footage,” Justin said, getting up from the table. “He saved my life.”

“You aren’t exactly worth saving, though, are you?” Rogers taunted. “Accomplice to attempted murder. Neither of you are heroes.”

“Heroes? Like you? You’re a laboratory experiment, Rogers. Everything special about you came out of a bottle.”

The energy signature match showed up on the screen and Ivan was the first to move towards it.

“Holy shit,” he said.

An explosion suddenly rocked the ship and fire exploded out from the vents. Ivan and Justin got thrown in opposite directions.

“Suit up!” Justin yelled over to him.

“On it,” Ivan replied, already running out of the room. Justin followed Rogers and Tony in their sprint down the corridor.

“Engine 3, we’ll meet you there,” Tony said to Rogers, who ran off.

Bluejay was standing beside the vault where Tony’s suit was kept. Justin ran to it and pulled off his jacket, shirt, trousers and shoes, revealing an under suit, specifically prepared for battle. He put the jacket back on.

“Nice tech, Justin,” Tony said. “Use it on those missiles?”

“Later, Tony.”

Tony took off to deal with the engine. Justin followed the suit, scanning the area for any potential threats.

“What does it look like in there?” Tony asked Rogers.

“It seems to run on some form of electricity,” Rogers said, confusion clear in his voice.

“Well, You’re not wrong. Jay, give him a hand,” Tony said.

Justin flew over in his black and electric blue suit and took a look at the control panel. He switched the correct relays and nodded at the confused man.

“Cap.”

“Jus, how’re the relays?” Tony asked.

“Intact. What now?”

“I’ll get the rotors started up again,” Tony said. “Even if I clear them there’s no way this thing will re-engage without a jump,” Tony said. “I’m gonna have to get in there and push.”

“What? No, you’ll get shredded!” Justin cried.

“The control unit can reverse the polarity long enough to disengage the-“

“Yeah, yeah, that could work,” Justin said, starting to realise what Tony was saying.

“See that red lever?” Tony asked. “It’ll slow the rotors down long enough for me to get out. Pull it when I say the word.”

“Got it,” Justin said, grabbing Rogers and flying him over.

“What the hell?” Rogers gasped.

“You’ll get used to it,” Justin said, turning around and firing a repulsor at a soldier. “Can you hold these guys off while I wait for the word?” Rogers responded to that by jumping over the ledge and throwing a guy off the precipice. “Okay then.”

~~~~~~~~~~

“Vanko, the Hulk has engaged an F22. Can you try and fix the situation?” Fury said into the commas.

“I can try,” Ivan said, taking to the air and getting his eyes on the falling F22. The pilot managed to escape, but the Hulk was falling. “Goddammit.”

He went after the Hulk, catching him by the foot. “Jesus Christ, calm down!” He slowed down, ignoring the actions of a very angry Hulk. Slowly, he calmed down, leaving a terrified Banner in his place. Ivan held Banner properly, letting him cling on. “Welcome back, Doctor.”

“Sorry,” Banner said sheepishly.

They landed on the ground gently. Ivan desuited and gave Banner his jacket. He sat down beside him. “What a day,” he said.

~~~~~~~~~~

“Hammer, Engine 1 just shut down!” Fury said.

“I’m on it,” Justin said. “Can you handle this alright?” He asked Rogers.

“Sure, why not,” Rogers said. “Go on.”

Justin flew over and put all his energy into holding up engine 1 while Tony got 3 back to work.

~~~~~~~~~~

A few minutes later, Thor landed on the ground, crashing beside them.

“Afternoon,” Ivan said to him, trying not to laugh.

“Coulson is dead,” Fury said to him through his earpiece

“Holy fuck,” Ivan said.

~~~~~~~~~~

Justin slowly got back to the bridge. Tony and Rogers were already sitting there. Tony immediately looked at him and smiled grimly.

“Nice to see you got back,” Fury said. “We’ve lost all communications. And yes, we were going to build an arsenal with the Tesseract. Yes, we did call on Dr Hammer for the project. We didn’t put all our numbers on that, though, because we were playing with something even riskier.”

He looked at all of them. “There was an idea, Stark knows this, called the Avengers initiative, to bring together a group of remarkable people to see if they could become something more, see if they could come together if we needed them to, to fight the battles we never could. Phil Coulson died still believing in that idea. I hope you won’t let him down.”

Tony left. Rogers followed him.

Justin decided to stay.

It was all but ten minutes later when Tony strode back in.

“He’s at Stark tower,” Tony said. “Tell your husband we’ll meet him there.”

“Can do,” Justin said, getting up. He nodded to Director Fury, then left.

“Babe, we’re going to Stark Tower. How are the others?” Justin asked. He was on his way to a window he could climb out of, helmet on so that he could talk to Ivan.

Ivan looked at Thor, then Banner. “They’ll be fine.” He hung up, then looked at them. “We have a location. Let’s go.”

~~~~~~~~~~

Justin flew beside Tony, carefully watching for the possibility of him falling. The Iron Man suit had seen better days.

“Shut it down, Erik,” Justin said, landing beside him.

“It’s too late!” Dr Selvig cried, “it can’t stop now. He wants to show us something. A new universe.”

“I’ll deal with Loki,” Tony said to Justin after discovering the strange new properties of the Tesseract. “Keep an eye on Selvig for now.”

“Can do,” Justin said, de-suiting and sitting down on the floor beside Selvig’s unconscious body. Don’t die.”

Justin watched Tony talk- threaten Loki, until he was thrown out of the window. Justin was going to go after him, but the Mark 7 was deployed, and he made it back up fine.

And then the portal opened.

“Oh fuck,” Ivan said, landing next to Justin,

“Where’s Thor and Banner?” Justin asked, getting up.

“No clue where Thor went, and Banner I dropped off at Central Station until further notice,” Ivan said, after removing his helmet so they could share a quick kiss.

They looked back up at the portal, where the Chitauri were beginning to emerge. Tony was already flying up as the weaponised welcoming committee. The explosions began and people down in the streets were terrified.

Justin looked at Ivan, panic in his eyes. “We need to evacuate the city.”

“You go to buildings, I’ll hustle in the streets,” Ivan said, taking off.

Justin blew into the main police station, smashing through a window. “You need to help us evacuate the city. Take them through basements and the subways. Keep them off the streets. Set up a perimeter down to 39th street. We’re with the government.” he said simply. The officers nodded, scared. “Try not to die.”

He flew through buildings, escorting people into elevators and down fire escapes.

“Get out of your cars and walk,” Ivan projected his voice. “If you have a child, either carry them or hold their hand.” He halted his announcement to catch the falling Quinjet, settling it gently on a nearby clear patch of ground. Barton, Romanoff and Rogers made it out fine. He looked out at the hundreds of people looking at him with fearful expressions. “MOVE, PEOPLE.”

More emerged from the portal, including a strange flying animal.

“Oh, what the fuck is that,” Justin said. They watched the destruction as they continued to help people evacuate, as well as kill their new alien visitors.

“Well,” Tony said, flying back. “I got his attention. What the hell is step two?”

“Kill him, you fucking idiot!” Justin yelled.

Lightning rained down from the sky as Thor made his dramatic appearance. “We can’t get the Cube,” he said.

“He’s right, the army is our focus now,” Justin said, flying beside Tony.

Banner rode over on a motorbike.

“Well this all seems horrible,” Banner said. Ivan landed beside him.

“You good?” He asked.

“Yeah, think so,” Bruce replied.

“Well then suit up,” Tony said. “We’re bringing the party to you.”

Justin gave a low whistle as Bruce took out the flying fucker. “Nice job!”

The team curled together as more Chitauri began emerging from the portal.

Rogers turned to them first. “You two, take on the individual Chitauri on those buildings.”

“On it,” Ivan said, taking off first, Justin not far behind.

Justin fought the Chitarui who were holding the people hostage in the bank on 47th, escorting them out. A small boy was left on the floor, crying. Outside, in the street, a man was screaming for his child. Justin scooped up the child and brought him out, dropped him off in the hands of the man.

“Get out of the city,” Justin said as the captain dealt with the grenade.

“Bluejay!” Natasha yelled.

“What?” Justin responded.

“I’ve got Loki on my tail,” she said. “Little help?”

“Can do,” Justin said, flying after them. He grabbed Loki, throwing him to the balcony. Hulk went after him. Justin decided to leave it there.

They both sat with Dr Selvig for a minute, after Justin had retrieved the Sceptre.

“Stark, Hammer,” Fury said. “You boys there?”

“Yeah, I’m here,” Justin said.

“There’s a missile headed straight for the city,” Fury said.

“How long do we have?” Justin asked. He watched as Natasha and Dr Selvig worked.

“About three minutes,” Fury said.

“I’ll handle it,” Tony said.

“Tony?” Justin asked.

“You have too much to lose,” Tony said. “I can do this. Stay here.”

“Don’t shut down the portal yet!” Justin yelled, knowing what Tony was going to do.

Tony expertly flew the middle into the portal. Justin watched.

“Come on, Tony, don’t die you stupid bastard.”

Natasha started closing the portal.

“No!” Ivan cried as Tony began to fall, flying up to catch him. He rested the man on the ground.

Ivan pried the rest of his helmet off, and felt for a pulse.

“He’s alive,” Ivan said. Justin gasped in relief.

“Fuck,” he said. “That was a nightmare. Let’s never do that again.”

Ivan flicked Tony in the face to wake him up.

“Ugh, Jesus,” Tony said.

“Wakey wakey,” Justin said, laughing a bit. “Time to get the fuck up.”

“God fucking damnit,” Tony said, taking Ivan’s hand and slowly sitting up. “Have you ever tried shwarma? There’s a shawarma joint about 2 blocks from here.”

“We aren’t done yet,” Ivan said. “Loki needs to be dealt with.”

~~~~~~~~~~

After Thor and Loki had been sent off back to Asgard, Tony turned to Ivan and Justin.

“You guys going back to Chicago now?” Tony asked.

“Once we have our daughter back, yes,” Ivan said. He looked at Justin, who smiled radiantly up at him.

“It’s been quite the twenty-four hours, hasn’t it?” Justin asked.

Ivan nodded. “Yeah, found out you were working for the government the whole time.”

Justin’s face fell. “Look, we’ll discuss it when we get home, okay?”

~~~~~~~~~~

“What’s her name again?” Tony asked.

“Legally it’s Yuliana but we call her Yulia,” Justin said, stroking the baby’s face with one finger. “Yuliana Beatrice Vanko.”

“Beatrice?”

“After my grandmother. She’s more accepting than my mother or my father,” Justin explained..

“She’s adorable,” Tony said.

They were back in Chicago, thankfully getting back before night. Mrs Erden had congratulated them, having watched it on the news.

Justin and Tony were sitting on the sofa, both with wet hair. They were taking showers in shifts, and Ivan was the last one. Justin was holding Yulia, freshly changed and awake but not crying. She had barely noticeable black hair, and her eyes were as blue as expected for young babies.

“Wait, hold her for a second while I get her bottle,” Justin said.

“No, I’ll drop her!” Tony responded. Who trusts him with a child?

“She’ll be fine,” Justin said. “Support the head.” He carefully gave Yulia to Tony and went to get the bottle.

“Hello, little one,” Tony said. “Aren’t you adorable.” He booped her nose gently, and laughed when she scrunched up her face.

“Alright, here we go,” Justin said, walking back over with a bottle. “Do you want to try?”

“Hell no!” Tony said. “You’re the parent, not me!”

“Geez, calm down!” Justin said. “It’s not even that difficult!”

He gave Tony the bottle why and then sat down next to him, smiling. “See? It’s not so hard.”

She was very cute. Her eyes were big, and blue.

“I feel like she’s staring into my soul,” Tony said.

“She won’t like what she sees,” said Ivan, coming out of the bathroom, hair wet. Justin got up and walked over. He leaned in close and seemed to whisper something before connecting his lips with the other man.

“Keep it PG guys, your kid is here,” Tony said. She was really gulping down the milk now. “Hey, how much is she meant to have?”

“The whole bottle,” Justin said, still standing by Ivan.

“God, that’s a lot,” Tony commented, but she seemed to finish the bottle perfectly well. When he looked up at the other two, they seemed to still be talking quietly. He shrugged and put the bottle down on the coffee table.

God, what a day.


End file.
